KT Associates: Graduates could be productive faster with soft skills training

Graduates would be more employable and more effective in their jobs if they had extra life skills, says management development specialists KT Associates.

Katie Jones of Ringwood-based KT said: ìEmployers are complaining that graduates do not have the skills to become team workers, who can communicate properly or have cultural awareness - and so graduate numbers are starting to outstrip demand.

ìBut if they came equipped with skills such as communication, assertiveness, team working, leadership, time management and understanding the role of the manager, they would quickly become more productive in their jobs.

ìThey would better understand what is expected of them, manage their working relationships, work within a team more effectively and manage their time better.î

All those skills could be imparted at university as part of the curriculum, said Katie, either from university lecturers with the right experience or from an external trainer.

She added that every university in the country could supply soft skills - MBA courses are often more theory-based than practical, so they may not be the answer.

But Katie says the burden should not necessarily sit on the shoulders of universities: ìEmployers could deliver this training as part of a graduates induction into the job.î

In either case she said graduates could be assessed using systems such as personality profiling and Belbinís Team Roles, which would quickly determine a graduateís areas of weakness and the training that would quickly impart the necessary soft skills.